Why Is JC Penney Unable To Send Me The Sizes I Actually Ordered?

For those of us who wear very unusual and/or large sizes of clothing, ordering clothes online is a thing of beauty and convenience. Unless you’re Matt, and JC Penney’s online fulfillment people are utterly unable to read the numbers on a pair of pants and put them in the correct box. Through multiple clothing orders, the retailer has been unable to send Matt the sizes that he actually requests–which I always thought was the entire point of ordering clothes online.

I write to you a man at the end of his rope. I have tried multiple times in the last month to get my order correct with JC Penney’s. Here’s a run down of what has happened.

I placed and order for two pairs of Levi Carpenter Jeans in the size of 52×32 on 11/15/10. When I received my order, I was the proud owner of one pair of 52×34 and a pair of 54×32 jeans. Of the correct manufacturer. That’s at least one point in their favor I suppose. Knowing that I needed the jeans in a time frame of now, I made the choice to wear them. Within two weeks, the pair of 54×32 jeans split at the back-right pocket. Another 2 weeks the other pair followed suit. Of course this is a defect in the Levi’s product, not really a concern of JC Penney’s. Not knowing that they had a 90-day return policy, I purchased two more pairs of 52×32 jeans (as the real size I want, 52×30, was out of stock) on 1/1/11 and three St. John’s Bay 5XLT shirts.

After waiting the normal shipping time (package arrived on 1/7/11), I was pleased to have my merchandise. I open the package only to find I now have a pair of 52×30 (the size that I actually wanted and the website said was unavailable) and a pair of 54×30. To add insult, I open the three shirts I also purchased, only to find one was barely a 1XLT and the other was a 4XLT. Even though the three shirts were labeled exactly the same and came from the same product line. So this prompted a phone call to JC Penney’s support line. I requested to speak to a supervisor (and in a classic rookie mistake, I forgot to get her name). After 25 minutes, she advised me I could take the two shirts, the pair of 54×30 jeans and the two damaged pair back to a store, be refunded the amount and should would place a correct order on her end. She even went as far to say that she would set the order to be hand picked so that it was correct.

Fast forward to 1/12/11. I had my supposedly correct merchandise waiting for me after work. When I opened the package I found that I only received one shirt that I should have and two of the three pairs of jeans. I will credit them by getting the jeans size correct this time (52×32 because 52×30 was apparently out…again). Thus, JC Penney customer support round two. This time the supervisor I spoke with acted as though she could care less about my problem. After 10 minutes on the phone, she could only state that I was owed one shirt. I explained the issue 3 times before getting snippy and told her to read the previous issue. Another 10 minutes later, she confirmed the size of jeans that I wanted (for the fourth time) and advised me that the order was taken care of. This time I got her name. I logged into my account on JCP.com and confirmed the order was placed.

Now we get to today’s bundle of joy. When I opened the package I was greeted by a shirt (the correct size) and a pair of 48×34 jeans. I called JC Penney support, for a third time and immediately requested to speak to someone in executive customer relations or the corporate office. I was given the corporate customer relation phone number (972-431-8200) where the phone was answered by another lady. After 5 minutes of discussion, she advised that she would open a corporate issue and let her manager know of the sizing and inventory issue they have at their distribution center. Then the call disconnected (on a land line, not a cell phone). I tried to call back and waited on hold for 25 minutes, two separate times before giving up.

So at this point, JC Penney’s has lost a long-time customer. I not only shop online but also in their brick and mortars. I can say that I am firmly dissatisfied with them and will be looking for another retailer for my clothing and household products.

casual male is WAY overpriced. even their “outlet stores” are a joke, since 75% of the stock is normal priced, and the 25% that’s cheaper is usually cheaper for good reason – it’s ugly, or the sizes no one on earth actually is.

JCP is nice because they actually carry some big/tall sized stuff in the store. I haven’t dealt with them online because I prefer to actually try stuff on. This post validates my reasons why – stuff being inconsistently sized and all.

Old Navy doesn’t carry ANYTHING in store, so I’ve bought from them online, pretty successfully, but I have had some minor problems with inconsistent sizing, mainly with length of shirts.

I agree with everything you said, inc Casual Male – but I’m not too aware of other places that carry big/tall sizes. :( I also go to Dillard’s (specifically their sale racks because i’m a cheap@$$) and get a LOT of decent looking stuff there. In fact I think most of my polos are from there.

Another negative thing about Casual Male is their stuff isn’t made all THAT great. That really bugs me. I hate having a shirt go bad on me after a couple wear/washes!!

I quit buying my pants from Casual male because the seam in the crotch always came apart after a month. I now buy my pants from King Size Direct. For the most part, their Pant quality is better than the old Casual Male stuff I used to get and they aren’t quite as expensive.

Got 3xlt and 4xlt shirts and larger size coveralls at Coastal Farm and Ranch before Christmas. That being said, Kmart has a decent Big mens collection. Because of his longer arms, My hubby must have a 3XLT, and I bought 4 different dress shirts there at Xmas. They sell all the way up to 4XLT, not sure about 5. They also sell larger socks and underwear. I have also got 3XLT and bigger at Ross stores, Fred Meyer (Kroger), and Burlington Coat factory. If all else fails, try http://www.kingsizedirect.com.

How cheap were you really? Cause Oneida is one of the best flatware companies I’ve ever purchased from and I love the flatware I got. If you look at its outlet department there are some really great deals.

As a fellow person of girth, I suggest the OP go into a freakin’ JCPenney store. Unlike almost all Kohl’s stores, most Sears stores — and forget the higher-end department stores — almost every JCP I go to has a decent big-and-tall section. In addition to Levi’s, I recommend their own Arizona brand jeans.

I find it hard to find clothes in the 28 to 29″ waist size. Most “adult” pants seem to start at size 30″ waist. I end up having to shop in the children’s or teen’s section and end up with size 16 or size 18 boys for most of my pants. Unfortunately, it’s often hard to find Docker’s or similar pants that are appropriate for work.

Try a military surplus or uniform store. Yes, not great for tops… but for Dockers or slacks? They’ll have those in many sizes, including tiny, for things like ROTC and medical students. For those things they are normal Dockers – just in huge piles of standard colors.

I find that the size I want is labelled as 2″ smaller than it actually is. So for instance, my typically 34×32 jeans get labelled as 33″ and the shorts are marked as 31. Is it too much to ask that vanity sizes stick to things marked as S, M and L?

I get the same thing when I shop for my stepson’s size 16 shoes. I finally gave up looking in local stores as absolutely no store in a 50 mile radius carries anything above a size 14, and I got tired of being told they couldn’t special order the right size for him to try. So I buy at a couple of online shoe stores that have a fit guarantee and free return shipping if it doesn’t fit.

I just wanted to say Penny’s gets my order right every time. When I got a color I didn’t like I took it back to the store and they re-ordered the correct color. It arrived at my house about a week later.

kingsizedirect.com specializes in exactly the kind of clothes OP is ordering – basic Levis jeans, tops. I’m sure there are other “big and tall” catalogs too, just this one happens to show up at the door once in a while.